Triological Society honors otolaryngology chair

Dr. Scott Stringer, left, professor and chair of otolaryngology, receives a Vice Presidential Citation in recognition of his outstanding contributions to otolaryngology-head and neck surgery from Dr. Doug Girod, vice president of the Triological Society Middle Section, at the Triological Society Combined Sections Meeting in Miami, Fla.

Disparities training program taps pediatrician

Dr. Abigail Gamble, an instructor in pediatrics and an early-career investigator in the Office of Population Health, has been selected to participate as a scholar in the 2014 Health Disparities Research Training Award Program (HDRTP), focusing on health-disparities research in cancer prevention.

HDRTP is a two-year, interdisciplinary program that mentors early-career faculty to become independent investigators through a series of workshops that enhance knowledge and scientific skills in health-disparities research.

HDRTP is funded by grants from the NIH Cancer Institute, the NIH National Institute on Aging and the NIH National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities through the Morehouse School of Medicine, Tuskegee University, the University of Alabama, Creighton University, Jackson State University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Journal names neurobiology chair senior editor

Dr. Michael Lehman, professor and chair of neurobiology and anatomical sciences, has been appointed senior editor of the Journal of Neuroendocrinology effective Jan. 1.

Lehman has served on the journal's editorial board since 2010.

Launched in 1989, the Journal of Neuroendocrinology is the leading international journal in the field of neuroendocrinology and its expanding interface with the regulation of behavioral, cognitive, developmental, degenerative and metabolic processes.

Orthopedic surgery faculty welcome Barrett

Dr. Gene R. Barrett, a founding partner of Mississippi Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center and a practicing sports medicine physician there for 28 years, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an associate professor of orthopedic surgery.

After attending Millsaps College, Barrett earned his M.D. at UMMC in 1974. He did a general surgery internship and an orthopedic surgery residency from 1975-76 at UMMC. He completed his orthopedic residency at the Greenville (S.C.) Hospital System in 1979. After finishing an A-O International Fellowship in Liestal- Basel, Switzerland in 1980, Barrett completed a 14-month sports knee surgery fellowship at the Hughston Orthopedic Clinic, Columbus, Ga., in 1981.

Locally, he served as president of the Mississippi Orthopedic Society in 1989, and has served as an orthopedic consultant to numerous high schools and colleges throughout the area.

Nationally, Barrett is an active member of the American Orthopedic Association, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, the American College of Sports Medicine, the Arthroscopy Association of North America, the Southern Orthopedic Society, and the Mid-America Orthopedic Association, and has served on many committees in these organizations.

Internationally, he was inducted into the International Society of the Knee, and asked to join the prestigious Anterior Cruciate Ligament Study Group, where he served on the membership and program committees.

Barrett has authored or coauthored four book chapters and more than 35 articles on knee problems in peer- reviewed professional publications. He has presented his clinical research nationally and internationally.

Infectious disease specialist joins med faculty

Dr. Laura Beauchamps, an experienced physician trained and board-certified in infectious disease and HIV medicine, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of medicine.

After receiving the M.D. from the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez, Dominican Republic, in 2001, Beauchamps entered volunteer medical service at Punta Cana and Bavaro Beach, D.R., from 2001-03 before doing an internal medicine residency from 2003-06 and an infectious disease fellowship from 2006-07 at Cabrini Medical Center, New York, N.Y. She then completed an infectious disease fellowship in 2008 at Mount Sinai Hospital, N.Y.

Beauchamps served as an attending physician at Kingsbrook Jewish Hospital, Brookdale Hospital Medical Center, Caton Park Nursing Home and River Manor Nursing Home in Brooklyn, N.Y., from 2008-09 and at Lutheran Family Health Centers of Lutheran Medical Center, Brooklyn, N.Y., from 2010-11. She has since provided medical care for the NO/AIDS Task Force HIV Primary Care Clinic in New Orleans, La.

She is an active member of the Infectious Disease Society of America and the Physician Research Network.

Otolaryngology faculty welcome Brunson

Angela Brunson, a UMMC speech pathologist, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in otolaryngology.

After receiving the B.S. in speech and hearing sciences from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1990, Brunson earned the M.S. in speech and hearing sciences at the University of South Alabama, Mobile, in 1991.

From 1992-2000, she served as a speech-language pathologist at several rehabilitation and medical institutions in Tennessee before joining the Rankin County School District as a speech-language pathologist.

Brunson first came to UMMC in 2001 as a speech and language pathologist and instructor before leaving in 2008. Since 2009, she has served as director of rehabilitation at Select Specialty Hospital and speech-language pathologist at various hospitals in Jackson.

Medical Center staff receive service recognition

The Medical Center is proud to acknowledge those employees who will celebrate service anniversaries this week:

Jaggar to explain trafficking in ion channels

Dr. Jonathan H. Jaggar, Maury Bronstein Endowed Professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, will present "Vascular Control by Ion Channel Trafficking" at 11 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 27, in classroom 6A.

For more information, call Pam Banks at 4-1690.

Molecular biologist to give cancer seminar

Dr. Farhad Kosari, assistant professor of biochemistry/molecular biology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., will present the UMMC Cancer Institute seminar, "ASCL1 and RET Expression Define a Clinically Relevant Subgroup of Lung Adenocarcinoma Characterized by Neuroendocrine Differentiation," at noon on Wednesday, Jan. 29, in room G-151 on the first floor of the Arthur Guyton Library.

All Medical Center faculty, staff and students are invited.

For more information, call Freda Turpeau at 5-6802.

UT-Southwestern postdoc to discuss autism

Dr. Nien-Pei Tsai, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neuroscience at the UT-Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, will present "Molecular Mechanisms of Synapse Elimination by Autism-linked Genes" from noon-1 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 13, in room CW 308 of the Classroom Wing.

All Medical Center faculty, staff and students are invited. The seminar is presented by the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomical Sciences.